Since I thought some people might be interested, here's the rough draft of the Chapter 1 Intro Story for my XNA Community game, Molly the Were-Zompire. The game is meant to be an RPG parody with each chapter being inspired by a famous RPG or just making fun of RPG cliches in general. Each chapter has a set format - read the intro story, fight some battles, fight the boss, read the end story - and is meant to be finished relatively quickly (one goal being to create a bite-sized RPG that you can play between other games when you have a few minutes free). I'm pretty proud of some of the gameplay systems I'm using and hope to have the game ready to beta test by the end of the month. Anyway, without further ado, the Chapter 1 intro story.
-Chapter 1 Intro-
My name is Molly D'Esper. You may have heard of me. Saving the world from the forces of unspeakable evil countless times does tend to make one rather famous. However, I wasn't always a renowned heroine.
I was once a normal teenage girl just like any other with one small difference. I liked to read horror novels in graveyards in the middle of the night. A bit odd, you might think, but it really adds to the horror reading experience, being surrounded by death and the fear of death like that. In any case, I was reading Vampire Slayer Rina vs. the Soulless Zombie Army one night when the unspeakable happened. I was attacked by the undead: a werewolf, a zombie, and a vampire to be precise.
I fought off my attackers with all the might that I could muster, but it was in vain. I died that night. However, as fate would have it, the werewolf, zombie, and vampire all killed me simultaneously. Thus, I became the world's first werewolf/zombie/vampire hybrid or Were-Zompire for short. An undead heroine was reborn.
Any RPG heroine worth her salt knows that adventuring is much easier with allies so I put up help wanted ads immediately. Umiko was the first one to answer the call. As the daughter of a ninja mother and a pirate father, she was well suited for the trials that lay ahead. With a katana in one hand and a cutlass in the other, and an abundance of ninja magic and pirate moxie, she would prove to be an invaluable ally.
Sleet, the has-been rock star was the next person to join our group. Apparently, he thought that a reputation for heroic acts would be just the thing he needed to reboot his failing musical career. His songs would boost our spirits while his mad guitar skillz would shred our opponents.
Torment was the last to join the party. A being of pure evil with a body made up of darkness and looking like nothing more than a nightmarish octopus, he was an odd choice. When I asked him why he wanted to join us, he told me that he was tired of being on the losing side and that all things considered, bands of adventures tended to kill almost as many things in their quests as villains did in their villainy. Made sense to me so I hired him. His attack spells and disabling spells would be most useful.
Our party formed, I said my farewells to my parents and made ready to leave my hometown in search of adventures when the unspeakable happened. Bandits attacked my hometown threatening to leave it in flaming ruins. Looks like it's a job for a heroine. Attack!
Or to put it another way, your game will have a set of challenges the player must learn to overcome. These will probably be layered, so the player will learn the easy ones, and then use mastery of the easier skills to begin learning and mastering the harder ones. What kinds of challenges do you have in mind? How quickly do you expect players will finish learning them? (Finishing learning doesn't necessarily mean mastery -- sometimes players feel they aren't making any more progress and they stop caring about further mastery of a game mechanic.)
These game mechanics might not necessarily form themselves around the framework of the plot and story you're going for -- you might need to design them yourself. Plus, if you're going for a homage to classic RPG's, if you use game mechanics that old RPG's have already trained players on, your most likely player won't have anything new to learn from your game.
mspencer on
MEMBER OF THE PARANOIA GM GUILD
XBL Michael Spencer || Wii 6007 6812 1605 7315 || PSN MichaelSpencerJr || Steam Michael_Spencer || Ham NOØK QRZ || My last known GPS coordinates: FindU or APRS.fi (Car antenna feed line busted -- no ham radio for me X__X )
I'm going for classic Dragon Quest style combat with a few twists. The overall gist is that I've sent the gameplay up to be more like a puzzle than your typical RPG.
Each stage of the game will consist of 5 battles & a boss fight. The twist is that the player can choose to do the 5 battles in any order (the boss fight is always last) and each of these 5 battles will bestow a power-up for use in the next battle. For example, one chapter might look like this:
Battle A - Enemies begin the battle stunned (skip their first turn).
Battle B - Fire attacks deal double damage.
Battle C - All party members get +5 to their Defense stat.
Battle D - All MP is restored at the beginning of battle.
Battle E - The regular attack command targets all enemies.
So the player needs to look at the power-ups, look at the enemy configurations for each battle and decide what the best order to tackle them is. It's a Megaman-style puzzle; depending on the order, you can make the game easier or harder.
Another twist is that none of your characters have healing magic. However, you have a few tricks up your sleeve to make up for this. First, whenever an enemy attacks, the player gets to choose which party member the attack will hit. Second, you start each chapter out with a number of Extra Lives. Whenever a party member dies, you can choose to use up one of these Extra Lives to instantly revive them with full HP. Alternatively, you can let them stay dead until the end of the battle (everyone gets full HP at the end of each successful battle); this can be useful when you think you can win the battle without that character and you don't want to waste your Extra Lives.
All of this adds up to make a game where there are no random elements (going along with this theme, status effect spells have a 100% success rate if the enemy isn't resistant to them). If you analyze the stage correctly and make good choices, you'll win every time. Otherwise, you might not be so lucky.
EDIT: Although it might not look it, it's taken me months of fine-tuning to come up with these gameplay mechanics. Previously versions of the gameplay all had various flaws upon closer inspection, but I think this setup has a nice balance between ease of understanding and strategic depth.
EDIT #2:
The singer turned to meet us as we approached. Hand raised to the heavens, he called out, "Pengsona!" The purple shadow of a penguin rose up behind him.
"Are you ready to stare down Eternity?" he screamed and the fight was on.
I've been working with FlatRedBall, a 2.5D XNA engine, and I'm liking it so far. It's confusing at times, but it does a TON of work for you, and it is both free and well supported. Amazing, eh? I just thought you guys might be interested if you're trying to do a 2D game with some 3D elements to it. http://www.flatredball.com/frb/
Yeah, I've heard of FRB but I never really understood what advantages the engine brings. Could you give a specific example or two of cool stuff you can do with it?
I have yet to see a spectacular example, but I'll try and explain the appeal it has for me. I want to do a 2D game, and the artist has done 2D work (sprites, comics, animation, etc.). So, I went looking for an engine designed for 2D art, and this one is, although it also can do 3D objects and such.
You can set it up to work on a 2D-only pixel basis, but if you use the default 3D mode, you can manage effects like parallax and depth scaling simply by changing the Z or moving the camera. I haven't gotten far enough along to honestly know if this will work out as simply as I hope. Conceptually speaking, I like the idea a lot, though.
It uses managers that handle the actual object drawing and updating, so you simply create a ball with a given velocity, and you don't need to worry about the actual sprite moving and such. I'm really not explaining this very compellingly, but the more I read through the tutorials, the more I liked it.
I'm slowed by my own complete lack of experience when it comes to graphics and gaming-related programming. I've written software for years, but games are more work than one might expect
I wish someone would make an amazing new music visualizer, I've tired of Neon now.
fragglefart on
0
Dusdais ashamed of this postSLC, UTRegistered Userregular
edited March 2009
So I scrapped most of my engine work and started over; things are developing much better this time around. I've spent a lot of time getting the core framework up and going, and less on crazy input patterns and content management.
Here's a really exciting test screenshot, which I'm certain will make everyone's pants bulge.
All the code required for the scene above (I just call the test method directly from Main()) is here. I'm happiest about how simple writing for the engine is turning out to be.
It's nothing fancy, but I've got 2D/3D line drawing (the box is 2D, origin lines are 3D), textures (all scaled to the proper resolution). That white box is an example of a safe-region box; the outer edges of the screen, even on some modern HDTV's, are often truncated somewhat, so critical items like your health bar should be drawn within the box. Simple 3D rendering (that is the rocket model from Rocket Commander, rendered with parallax and specular shaders), and a bunch of helper classes written for handling text (positioning, mostly), input, sound, string manipulation, random numbers, taking screenshots in-engine, automatic unloading/reloading (I can switch resolutions and everything re-inits as needed), and so on.
Next up is shader management, refactoring 3D stuff, improving my camera system, scripting to Xml, and probably more 3D stuff when I integrate the XNA Animation Library.
SirUltimosDon't talk, Rusty. Just paint.Registered Userregular
edited March 2009
I've finally gotten around to downloading the XNA Framework. I'm gonna play around with it tonight. I'm a CS student with some background in Java, so I figure I'll be able to do SOMETHING, and then eventually work my way up to creating a simple game.
SirUltimos if I may share my experience as a fellow XNA newbie: the docs don't really do a good job of explaining what features XNA offers to make your life easier. If you have questions please ask and/or find a book to walk you through some basics. I was totally lost until I bought a book.
mspencer on
MEMBER OF THE PARANOIA GM GUILD
XBL Michael Spencer || Wii 6007 6812 1605 7315 || PSN MichaelSpencerJr || Steam Michael_Spencer || Ham NOØK QRZ || My last known GPS coordinates: FindU or APRS.fi (Car antenna feed line busted -- no ham radio for me X__X )
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SirUltimosDon't talk, Rusty. Just paint.Registered Userregular
Dusdais ashamed of this postSLC, UTRegistered Userregular
edited March 2009
I'm using Wrox's "Professional Xna Programming". It assumes you have a decent understanding of programming, and some experience with DirectX (I did a lot of stuff with Managed DirectX before it was kicked to the curb for Xna).
I don't know how much weight my recommendation has. I'm a CS grad student but have little XNA or other game programming experience. I took a class that involved writing simple OpenGL programs in 2004, so I was already familiar with viewing frustrums and whatnot, but knew nothing about texturing or HLSL when I opened this book.
So, that said: I'm recommending O'Reilly's "Learning XNA 3.0" by Aaron Reed, ISBN is . . . umm *opens front cover* 978-0-596-52195-0.
I think most of what I got out of that book is: a thorough introduction to a few important and useful parts of XNA; and an overview of the program structure XNA seems to like best. The sample programs for the book are *opens front cover again, turns pages* at http://www.aaronreed.com/serenitynow/ . Chapter 7 is the end of the 2D section, and chapter 15 ends the 3D section, with remaining chapters on Xbox 360 deployment and on basic multiplayer code. These "games" aren't much but you might download the sample programs for those two chapters and compile/run them.
mspencer on
MEMBER OF THE PARANOIA GM GUILD
XBL Michael Spencer || Wii 6007 6812 1605 7315 || PSN MichaelSpencerJr || Steam Michael_Spencer || Ham NOØK QRZ || My last known GPS coordinates: FindU or APRS.fi (Car antenna feed line busted -- no ham radio for me X__X )
I don't know if it's something I've activated on my account or what, but for some reason, I can't play trial Community games on my 360. It keeps telling me that I'm not old enough to do so.
A number of relevant points:
I don't have parental controls enabled (there are no children playing my 360)
These aren't demos that are maturely-rated
I'm 26 DAMNIT
Anyone got any ideas? I throw GTA IV in and murder prostitutes all day if I feel, but if I want to load up Hexothermic to see what it's about, no dice.
Very strange. Definitely sounds like it's time to get somebody on the phone and start complaining. I wonder if there's any way for you to reinstall NXE or something?
OremLK on
My zombie survival life simulator They Don't Sleep is out now on Steam if you want to check it out.
Oh, yeah, I think they're having some issues with the sign-in today. I don't know what's going on but I can't sign in on my Windows Live profile on xna.com either.
OremLK on
My zombie survival life simulator They Don't Sleep is out now on Steam if you want to check it out.
Yeah, just went over to MajorNelson and saw they're having issues with the Marketplace. That's one relief, at least. I'll have a think about getting someone on the phone, cheers!
A couple of interesting tidbits from that article:
Over 200 games released in exactly 4 months.
122 Community Games are 200 points, 71 are 400 points, and just 10 are 800 points.
The three most common genres are Puzzle/Trivia (22.66%), Action/Adventure (15.27%), and Shooter (10.84%). RPGs & Educational games are the least common with just 3 entries total in each (1.48%).
A couple of interesting tidbits from that article:
Over 200 games released in exactly 4 months.
122 Community Games are 200 points, 71 are 400 points, and just 10 are 800 points.
The three most common genres are Puzzle/Trivia (22.66%), Action/Adventure (15.27%), and Shooter (10.84%). RPGs & Educational games are the least common with just 3 entries total in each (1.48%).
22.66 + 15.27 + 10.84 + 1.48 = 50.25...
So 49.75% of all of the Community games are the newly emerging "Diddle your girlfriend from afar" games?
e:
I'm not changing it... it's very funny. Yes, I've since read the article and see the large number of other minor genres... but it's still funny.
Dyvion on
Steam: No Safety In Life
PSN: Dyvion -- Eternal: Dyvion+9393 -- Genshin Impact: Dyvion
Wait, what? I only know of two or three of those massage games out of the 200+ games on there.
There are some pretty crappy games on CG, but there are some really good ones too. I wish people wouldn't glance at the Most Popular list and just write the whole thing off. Maybe this will change when MS finally puts up user ratings for the games, though.
OremLK on
My zombie survival life simulator They Don't Sleep is out now on Steam if you want to check it out.
I liked it. It was a little rough around the corners (a download finishing caused some jerkiness & I found an odd bug where I couldn't jump fully at one point although it fixed itself after a few seconds), but the core game was solid. A few questions for you:
About what percentage of the game is the demo?
Do you have to play the whole game in one sitting or is there a stage select or save feature?
Do you keep getting new abilities the further you play?
Do you like Silent Hill 2?
I liked it. It was a little rough around the corners (a download finishing caused some jerkiness & I found an odd bug where I couldn't jump fully at one point although it fixed itself after a few seconds), but the core game was solid. A few questions for you:
About what percentage of the game is the demo?
Do you have to play the whole game in one sitting or is there a stage select or save feature?
Do you keep getting new abilities the further you play?
Do you like Silent Hill 2?
1. It's hard for me to nail down an exact percentage without knowing how good you are at the game and how fast you go through the levels, etc--but there are seven levels total, and I figure on average people would finish 1-2 levels during the demo. Keep in mind that the game gets a lot harder as you go on though.
2. No stage select feature, but the game automatically saves at the beginning of each level (you should see a message pop up in the corner notifying you that it has been saved). It automatically loads when you start the game, but only in the full version.
3. Roll is unlocked on the second level, and double jump is unlocked on the third level, and that's the extent of it. I do introduce more elements as the game goes on, though, like new enemies, moving platforms, etc.
4. I haven't played SH2 in a long time, but I remember it being very creepy and getting lost a lot. Yes, I guess? :P
OremLK on
My zombie survival life simulator They Don't Sleep is out now on Steam if you want to check it out.
Thanks for the quick answer. If the difficulty continues to ramp up like it has, I think it'll offer a decent length & challenge for me. And to be honest, all I ask out of a $2.50 game is a couple hours of fun gameplay which it looks like this'll deliver. I'll probably buy it after I finish up my own XNA game (not buying any more games until I finish my own).
Oh and the SH2 question was because of the obvious parallels in story so far (husband named James, wife in critical condition).
Don't know if anyone caught this in Peer Review, but it is a really interesting game that just got approved, so it should be available for sale within a few hours. You play as a star and try to capture planets into your orbit while combining them with asteroids or absorbing them into yourself to grow your star. Very sandbox-y, but it has challenges to make things more interesting.
OremLK on
My zombie survival life simulator They Don't Sleep is out now on Steam if you want to check it out.
I tried out A Fading Memory tonight. It's nice to see a Community Game that is actually pleasing to look at, visually. The platforming honestly felt a little loose and the collision detection a bit off. Still, I like the style and concept, so I'll probably pick it up next time I have some points laying around.
Dagrabbit on
0
DyvionBack in Sunny Florida!!Registered Userregular
Don't know if anyone caught this in Peer Review, but it is a really interesting game that just got approved, so it should be available for sale within a few hours. You play as a star and try to capture planets into your orbit while combining them with asteroids or absorbing them into yourself to grow your star. Very sandbox-y, but it has challenges to make things more interesting.
Solar is a ton of fun... I tried the trial last night and when the time ran out I bought it. (only 200 points)
I messed around in sandbox for about 30 minutes then went to bed...
Woke up this morning and spent about 3 hours doing the challenges (got master on 3 of them, woohoo).
Some of them are very difficult.
Spoilers ahead!
The challenges introduce you to some of the game mechanics, like the black hole (which is a lot of fun) and how to make yourself into a binary system. I have a personal goal of getting a trinary system in place... I know it will be hard, but it will be a ton of fun trying to accomplish it.
So far I've bought Solar and Miner: Dig Deep and I'm thoroughly happy with the 400 points I've spent. Still need to try Fading (melody? memory?).
Dyvion on
Steam: No Safety In Life
PSN: Dyvion -- Eternal: Dyvion+9393 -- Genshin Impact: Dyvion
Battle Havok is up on Community Games. If the trailer is any indicator, it's Death Tank, but better in every way, including price (400 MS points = $5).
This question isn't a great fit for this thread but I don't know where else to post it. Part of what keeps me from using or enjoying community games -- or even Xbox Live Arcade games -- is how long it takes the 360 to let me launch them. I'm curious if this problem happens for other people as well.
So the problem I'm talking about: if I'm playing a game, I quit to dash and immediately go browse my games, I am presented an empty list of games and an "Xbox hourglass" for what feels like nearly a full minute. That delay is tolerable if I'm hunting for a favorite XBLA game or Xbox Originals game. But a random "try and see if you like it" community game that might turn out to be a coat of paint on another Breakout clone makes that delay feel prohibitively long.
Does this happen to you too? If so, what approximate year was your 360 made? Mine is launch plus a few months, and I think I heard that newer 360's have additional built-in storage that old 360's lack, like a permanent memory card. I know my problem isn't likely to be defective hardware, as I've had the same problem before sending my 360 in, and also after receiving it back a couple weeks ago.
mspencer on
MEMBER OF THE PARANOIA GM GUILD
XBL Michael Spencer || Wii 6007 6812 1605 7315 || PSN MichaelSpencerJr || Steam Michael_Spencer || Ham NOØK QRZ || My last known GPS coordinates: FindU or APRS.fi (Car antenna feed line busted -- no ham radio for me X__X )
No, it happens to me as well and I have a relatively new system (bought it last year to replace my Asian system which I sold to someone else on these boards) with hard drive caching. It's really annoying; I hope they fix that soon.
Note, it only seems to happen after you've played a game. If you just go straight to games upon booting, it loads quickly.
Oh and I tried Solar & Battle Havok. Both demos are well worth your time & probably your money as well.
So, A Fading Melody is on the Most Popular list now I don't know how long that'll last, or what it means in terms of popularity, but it's still pretty cool to see.
OremLK on
My zombie survival life simulator They Don't Sleep is out now on Steam if you want to check it out.
Posts
-Chapter 1 Intro-
My name is Molly D'Esper. You may have heard of me. Saving the world from the forces of unspeakable evil countless times does tend to make one rather famous. However, I wasn't always a renowned heroine.
I was once a normal teenage girl just like any other with one small difference. I liked to read horror novels in graveyards in the middle of the night. A bit odd, you might think, but it really adds to the horror reading experience, being surrounded by death and the fear of death like that. In any case, I was reading Vampire Slayer Rina vs. the Soulless Zombie Army one night when the unspeakable happened. I was attacked by the undead: a werewolf, a zombie, and a vampire to be precise.
I fought off my attackers with all the might that I could muster, but it was in vain. I died that night. However, as fate would have it, the werewolf, zombie, and vampire all killed me simultaneously. Thus, I became the world's first werewolf/zombie/vampire hybrid or Were-Zompire for short. An undead heroine was reborn.
Any RPG heroine worth her salt knows that adventuring is much easier with allies so I put up help wanted ads immediately. Umiko was the first one to answer the call. As the daughter of a ninja mother and a pirate father, she was well suited for the trials that lay ahead. With a katana in one hand and a cutlass in the other, and an abundance of ninja magic and pirate moxie, she would prove to be an invaluable ally.
Sleet, the has-been rock star was the next person to join our group. Apparently, he thought that a reputation for heroic acts would be just the thing he needed to reboot his failing musical career. His songs would boost our spirits while his mad guitar skillz would shred our opponents.
Torment was the last to join the party. A being of pure evil with a body made up of darkness and looking like nothing more than a nightmarish octopus, he was an odd choice. When I asked him why he wanted to join us, he told me that he was tired of being on the losing side and that all things considered, bands of adventures tended to kill almost as many things in their quests as villains did in their villainy. Made sense to me so I hired him. His attack spells and disabling spells would be most useful.
Our party formed, I said my farewells to my parents and made ready to leave my hometown in search of adventures when the unspeakable happened. Bandits attacked my hometown threatening to leave it in flaming ruins. Looks like it's a job for a heroine. Attack!
Zeboyd Games Development Blog
Steam ID : rwb36, Twitter : Werezompire, Facebook : Zeboyd Games
Or to put it another way, your game will have a set of challenges the player must learn to overcome. These will probably be layered, so the player will learn the easy ones, and then use mastery of the easier skills to begin learning and mastering the harder ones. What kinds of challenges do you have in mind? How quickly do you expect players will finish learning them? (Finishing learning doesn't necessarily mean mastery -- sometimes players feel they aren't making any more progress and they stop caring about further mastery of a game mechanic.)
These game mechanics might not necessarily form themselves around the framework of the plot and story you're going for -- you might need to design them yourself. Plus, if you're going for a homage to classic RPG's, if you use game mechanics that old RPG's have already trained players on, your most likely player won't have anything new to learn from your game.
XBL Michael Spencer || Wii 6007 6812 1605 7315 || PSN MichaelSpencerJr || Steam Michael_Spencer || Ham NOØK
QRZ || My last known GPS coordinates: FindU or APRS.fi (Car antenna feed line busted -- no ham radio for me X__X )
Each stage of the game will consist of 5 battles & a boss fight. The twist is that the player can choose to do the 5 battles in any order (the boss fight is always last) and each of these 5 battles will bestow a power-up for use in the next battle. For example, one chapter might look like this:
Battle A - Enemies begin the battle stunned (skip their first turn).
Battle B - Fire attacks deal double damage.
Battle C - All party members get +5 to their Defense stat.
Battle D - All MP is restored at the beginning of battle.
Battle E - The regular attack command targets all enemies.
So the player needs to look at the power-ups, look at the enemy configurations for each battle and decide what the best order to tackle them is. It's a Megaman-style puzzle; depending on the order, you can make the game easier or harder.
Another twist is that none of your characters have healing magic. However, you have a few tricks up your sleeve to make up for this. First, whenever an enemy attacks, the player gets to choose which party member the attack will hit. Second, you start each chapter out with a number of Extra Lives. Whenever a party member dies, you can choose to use up one of these Extra Lives to instantly revive them with full HP. Alternatively, you can let them stay dead until the end of the battle (everyone gets full HP at the end of each successful battle); this can be useful when you think you can win the battle without that character and you don't want to waste your Extra Lives.
All of this adds up to make a game where there are no random elements (going along with this theme, status effect spells have a 100% success rate if the enemy isn't resistant to them). If you analyze the stage correctly and make good choices, you'll win every time. Otherwise, you might not be so lucky.
EDIT: Although it might not look it, it's taken me months of fine-tuning to come up with these gameplay mechanics. Previously versions of the gameplay all had various flaws upon closer inspection, but I think this setup has a nice balance between ease of understanding and strategic depth.
EDIT #2:
The singer turned to meet us as we approached. Hand raised to the heavens, he called out, "Pengsona!" The purple shadow of a penguin rose up behind him.
"Are you ready to stare down Eternity?" he screamed and the fight was on.
Zeboyd Games Development Blog
Steam ID : rwb36, Twitter : Werezompire, Facebook : Zeboyd Games
I have yet to see a spectacular example, but I'll try and explain the appeal it has for me. I want to do a 2D game, and the artist has done 2D work (sprites, comics, animation, etc.). So, I went looking for an engine designed for 2D art, and this one is, although it also can do 3D objects and such.
You can set it up to work on a 2D-only pixel basis, but if you use the default 3D mode, you can manage effects like parallax and depth scaling simply by changing the Z or moving the camera. I haven't gotten far enough along to honestly know if this will work out as simply as I hope. Conceptually speaking, I like the idea a lot, though.
It uses managers that handle the actual object drawing and updating, so you simply create a ball with a given velocity, and you don't need to worry about the actual sprite moving and such. I'm really not explaining this very compellingly, but the more I read through the tutorials, the more I liked it.
I'm slowed by my own complete lack of experience when it comes to graphics and gaming-related programming. I've written software for years, but games are more work than one might expect
Edit: This probably explains the 3D camera stuff better than I can, although it's not quick or simple. I'd say, though, that if you're considering the engine, read this: http://www.flatredball.com/frb/docs/index.php?title=FlatRedBallXna:Tutorials:Understanding_the_3D_Camera
Top Community Games NEW! (Full Versions purchased)
1 RC-AirSim
2 Aquarium HD
3 DrumKit
4 ZP2K9
5 Bowling X
6 Rumble Massage
7 Miner Dig Deep
8 TV Calibration
9 Remote Masseuse
10 Tanks.V.S
Tanks.V.S shows up on the list (why?!), but other than that it's business as usual.
Zeboyd Games Development Blog
Steam ID : rwb36, Twitter : Werezompire, Facebook : Zeboyd Games
I wish someone would make an amazing new music visualizer, I've tired of Neon now.
Here's a really exciting test screenshot, which I'm certain will make everyone's pants bulge.
It's nothing fancy, but I've got 2D/3D line drawing (the box is 2D, origin lines are 3D), textures (all scaled to the proper resolution). That white box is an example of a safe-region box; the outer edges of the screen, even on some modern HDTV's, are often truncated somewhat, so critical items like your health bar should be drawn within the box. Simple 3D rendering (that is the rocket model from Rocket Commander, rendered with parallax and specular shaders), and a bunch of helper classes written for handling text (positioning, mostly), input, sound, string manipulation, random numbers, taking screenshots in-engine, automatic unloading/reloading (I can switch resolutions and everything re-inits as needed), and so on.
Next up is shader management, refactoring 3D stuff, improving my camera system, scripting to Xml, and probably more 3D stuff when I integrate the XNA Animation Library.
XBL Michael Spencer || Wii 6007 6812 1605 7315 || PSN MichaelSpencerJr || Steam Michael_Spencer || Ham NOØK
QRZ || My last known GPS coordinates: FindU or APRS.fi (Car antenna feed line busted -- no ham radio for me X__X )
I have 300 points left, anyone got any suggestions for good 100/200 point games?
Hexothermic & Miner Dig Deep are both good.
Zeboyd Games Development Blog
Steam ID : rwb36, Twitter : Werezompire, Facebook : Zeboyd Games
So, that said: I'm recommending O'Reilly's "Learning XNA 3.0" by Aaron Reed, ISBN is . . . umm *opens front cover* 978-0-596-52195-0.
I think most of what I got out of that book is: a thorough introduction to a few important and useful parts of XNA; and an overview of the program structure XNA seems to like best. The sample programs for the book are *opens front cover again, turns pages* at http://www.aaronreed.com/serenitynow/ . Chapter 7 is the end of the 2D section, and chapter 15 ends the 3D section, with remaining chapters on Xbox 360 deployment and on basic multiplayer code. These "games" aren't much but you might download the sample programs for those two chapters and compile/run them.
XBL Michael Spencer || Wii 6007 6812 1605 7315 || PSN MichaelSpencerJr || Steam Michael_Spencer || Ham NOØK
QRZ || My last known GPS coordinates: FindU or APRS.fi (Car antenna feed line busted -- no ham radio for me X__X )
A number of relevant points:
I don't have parental controls enabled (there are no children playing my 360)
These aren't demos that are maturely-rated
I'm 26 DAMNIT
Anyone got any ideas? I throw GTA IV in and murder prostitutes all day if I feel, but if I want to load up Hexothermic to see what it's about, no dice.
If yes and yes, you might want to contact Microsoft support.
Yes to both. It's weird as hell, I tell you.
What the hell is going on?
A couple of interesting tidbits from that article:
Over 200 games released in exactly 4 months.
122 Community Games are 200 points, 71 are 400 points, and just 10 are 800 points.
The three most common genres are Puzzle/Trivia (22.66%), Action/Adventure (15.27%), and Shooter (10.84%). RPGs & Educational games are the least common with just 3 entries total in each (1.48%).
Zeboyd Games Development Blog
Steam ID : rwb36, Twitter : Werezompire, Facebook : Zeboyd Games
22.66 + 15.27 + 10.84 + 1.48 = 50.25...
So 49.75% of all of the Community games are the newly emerging "Diddle your girlfriend from afar" games?
e:
PSN: Dyvion -- Eternal: Dyvion+9393 -- Genshin Impact: Dyvion
There are some pretty crappy games on CG, but there are some really good ones too. I wish people wouldn't glance at the Most Popular list and just write the whole thing off. Maybe this will change when MS finally puts up user ratings for the games, though.
I remember someone here talking about that game and me thinking it looked pretty interesting. Impressions after I download the demo.
Zeboyd Games Development Blog
Steam ID : rwb36, Twitter : Werezompire, Facebook : Zeboyd Games
About what percentage of the game is the demo?
Do you have to play the whole game in one sitting or is there a stage select or save feature?
Do you keep getting new abilities the further you play?
Do you like Silent Hill 2?
Zeboyd Games Development Blog
Steam ID : rwb36, Twitter : Werezompire, Facebook : Zeboyd Games
1. It's hard for me to nail down an exact percentage without knowing how good you are at the game and how fast you go through the levels, etc--but there are seven levels total, and I figure on average people would finish 1-2 levels during the demo. Keep in mind that the game gets a lot harder as you go on though.
2. No stage select feature, but the game automatically saves at the beginning of each level (you should see a message pop up in the corner notifying you that it has been saved). It automatically loads when you start the game, but only in the full version.
3. Roll is unlocked on the second level, and double jump is unlocked on the third level, and that's the extent of it. I do introduce more elements as the game goes on, though, like new enemies, moving platforms, etc.
4. I haven't played SH2 in a long time, but I remember it being very creepy and getting lost a lot. Yes, I guess? :P
Any other PAers have games I can patronize?
(I'm feverishly trying to pickup XNA as fast as I can so that you guys can buy my games and moderately inflate my self-esteem :P )
Oh and the SH2 question was because of the obvious parallels in story so far (husband named James, wife in critical condition).
Zeboyd Games Development Blog
Steam ID : rwb36, Twitter : Werezompire, Facebook : Zeboyd Games
Don't know if anyone caught this in Peer Review, but it is a really interesting game that just got approved, so it should be available for sale within a few hours. You play as a star and try to capture planets into your orbit while combining them with asteroids or absorbing them into yourself to grow your star. Very sandbox-y, but it has challenges to make things more interesting.
Solar is a ton of fun... I tried the trial last night and when the time ran out I bought it. (only 200 points)
I messed around in sandbox for about 30 minutes then went to bed...
Woke up this morning and spent about 3 hours doing the challenges (got master on 3 of them, woohoo).
Some of them are very difficult.
Spoilers ahead!
So far I've bought Solar and Miner: Dig Deep and I'm thoroughly happy with the 400 points I've spent. Still need to try Fading (melody? memory?).
PSN: Dyvion -- Eternal: Dyvion+9393 -- Genshin Impact: Dyvion
Zeboyd Games Development Blog
Steam ID : rwb36, Twitter : Werezompire, Facebook : Zeboyd Games
So the problem I'm talking about: if I'm playing a game, I quit to dash and immediately go browse my games, I am presented an empty list of games and an "Xbox hourglass" for what feels like nearly a full minute. That delay is tolerable if I'm hunting for a favorite XBLA game or Xbox Originals game. But a random "try and see if you like it" community game that might turn out to be a coat of paint on another Breakout clone makes that delay feel prohibitively long.
Does this happen to you too? If so, what approximate year was your 360 made? Mine is launch plus a few months, and I think I heard that newer 360's have additional built-in storage that old 360's lack, like a permanent memory card. I know my problem isn't likely to be defective hardware, as I've had the same problem before sending my 360 in, and also after receiving it back a couple weeks ago.
XBL Michael Spencer || Wii 6007 6812 1605 7315 || PSN MichaelSpencerJr || Steam Michael_Spencer || Ham NOØK
QRZ || My last known GPS coordinates: FindU or APRS.fi (Car antenna feed line busted -- no ham radio for me X__X )
Note, it only seems to happen after you've played a game. If you just go straight to games upon booting, it loads quickly.
Oh and I tried Solar & Battle Havok. Both demos are well worth your time & probably your money as well.
Zeboyd Games Development Blog
Steam ID : rwb36, Twitter : Werezompire, Facebook : Zeboyd Games